The Peranakan Chinese Home by Ronald G. Knapp

Author:Ronald G. Knapp
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4629-1185-1
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing

Although narrower than many Reception Halls in larger residences, the one dominating the headquarters of the Persatuan Peranakan Cina Melaka (Peranakan Chinese Association of Malacca) on Heeren Street nonetheless maintains similar characteristics, with a mixture of Chinese and European furniture. Above the altar, the two characters yi qi translate as “righteousness,” which epitomizes the character of Guan Gong.

Above the altar in Tan Cheng Lock’s residence in Malacca, this painting shows Guan Gong and Zhang Fei, two warriors from the Three Kingdoms period.

Guan Yin, although not as prominent as Guan Gong, is also found on many altars as an unmistakably female white-glazed figure with a multiplicity of forms and meanings. Guan Yin, who originated as a male named Avalokiteshvara in early Buddhism in South Asia, eventually took on a variety of feminine forms in a series of transformations as devotees adopted her. Daoists also revere Guan Yin, a Buddhist bodhisattva known in English as the Goddess of Mercy and Compassion, as an immortal. Guan Yin is also popular in syncretic folk beliefs and the focus of legends that vary from region to region throughout China. Seen especially as a guardian of women and children, Guan Yin is viewed by many also as a fertility goddess capable of responding to supplications by those wishing to have children. As a Blanc de Chine porcelain figure holding a boy baby on her lap or in her arms, the purity of Guan Yin is said to resemble the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus, a plausible convergence that arose with the arrival of Christian influences along China’s southeastern coast. Moreover, Guan Yin has a long history as a protector of fishermen and seafarers in this region, where she functions as an alternate focus of devotion to the even more popular Mazu.

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